Does anyone know what would happen when a Lord marries a Lady? Is it even possible, or do countries with peers of th realm prevent one from wedding another?
I don’t quite follow. They don’t lose their titles if they intermarry. If the title is hereditary, then it goes to their kids (knighthoods and baronets are not hereditary).
Up until this century, most aristocrats married within their stratum of society - it was encouraged. I have been told that one of the contemporary princesses of Sweden (Madeleine, I think) currently has a commoner boyfriend, which has caused a bit of a scandal.
No, what I meant is if someone is a lord and he marries a lady, who both are members of the House of Lords, does their oldest get both seats? And in some places, baronies are hereditary.
Doesn’t work that way - at least not in the UK. If you are qualified to sit in the House of Lords, then you can. You don’t get to sit in it twice if you are doubly qualified. There aren’t a set number of seats/votes which have to be divvied up between all the qualified applicants. In fact, a substantial number (I think a majority, but don’t have figures to hand) of the Lords are life peers - senior politicians who’ve been ennobled by the Crown, but don’t get to pass it on to their descendants. And the hereditary peers are on their way out.
The two peers would keep their own titles, and both titles would be passed on to the heir. So the heir would be Earl of OnePlace and Another. I’d guess that the title that had been in existence longer would be listed first. If the heir inherited an earldom and a dukedom, then he would probably just use the higher title.
There aren’t many titles that can be inherited by women. We know that the mother’s title can be inherited by women, but the father’s title probably can’t be. As long as their heir is male everything will be fine. As soon as a situation occurs where a women will inherit (if the current Earl/Duke has only daughters), the titles will split again. One title will go to the daughter, and another will go to the next male heir. This happened when Queen Victoria inherited the throne of England etc. One of the titles of the King of England had been King of Hanover. Because of Salic law the ruler of Hanover could never be a woman. So Victoria got England, and some obnoxious uncle of hers became King of Hanover.
Ariadne is basically correct. Few women hold hereditary titles in their own right so such cases are very rare. Nevertheless the rules are well-established. A wife takes her husband’s title unless she holds a higher one in her own right. Thus the Countess of A marrying the Duke of B becomes the Duchess of B, whereas the Duchess of C marrying the Earl of D becomes Countess of D but (for most purposes) continues to use the title of Duchess of C, while her husband remains Earl of D. (In past centuries the Earl of D might have found himself promoted to become the Duke of D as a favour from the monarch to reduce the potential confusion. That however would have counted as a new peerage, requiring a new grant.) Where the two peerages are of the same rank, the same principles apply, with rank being determined by the antiquity of the two titles. In all these cases their eldest son would inherit both peerages on the death of the particular parent who held that title. Thus the heir of the Duchess of C and the Earl of D could become the Duke of C in his own right during his father’s lifetime if his mother predeceased her husband. Ariadne is also correct about what usually happens in subsequent generations if the holder of the peerages fails to produce a male heir.
The question of seats in the House of Lords is a bit more complicated. Until recently, the rule was that a peeress in her own right took her seat in the same way as any peer, irrespective of her husband’s status. IIRC, there are cases of hereditary peeresses who are still entitled to sit, but, of course, the overall number of hereditary peers with that right has been drastically reduced. One should also note that there were periods in the past when peeresses in their own right were not entitled to take their seat.
Different rules apply for peeresses who hold a title as the widow or divorcee of a peer.